A Space for Cringeworthy Cinema

Five reasons we’re pumped for ‘The Disaster Artist’

“I did not hit her. It’s not true. It’s bullshit. I did not hit her. I did not. Oh, hi Mark.”

These Tommy Wiseau words ring in our ears as some of the best in bad movie history, and they come from the only film that has earned five-out-of-five Cages on our Cage-O’Meter: “The Room.”

Fortunately for us, James Franco and friends have decided to give us a look behind the scenes of the beloved cult trainwreck in the upcoming film “The Disaster Artist.” The film is based the book by Greg Sestero, who played Mark in “The Room.”

The first teaser trailer for the movie has dropped. Here it is:

In the trailer, Franco performs a spot-on portrayal of Wiseau, who repeatedly emerges from a tiny metal shed set up as a rooftop entrance, struggling to spit out one of the movie’s most iconic lines. Seth Rogan appears as an understandably frustrated script supervisor, with Dave Franco portraying Sestero, who is watching nervously just off-camera.

After what feels like 100 takes, Tommy finally lands the line, and the crew celebrates in jubilation.

For those that aren’t familiar with Wiseau’s disasterpiece, “The Room” is a 2003 film that has been dubbed the “Citizen Kane” of bad movies.

Here is the plot, courtesy of IMDB (we could not think of a way to coherently describe this movie): Johnny (Wiseau) is a successful banker who lives happily in a San Francisco townhouse with his fiancée, Lisa (Juliette Danielle). One day, inexplicably, she gets bored with him and decides to seduce his best friend, Mark. From there, nothing will be the same again.

“The Disaster Artist” will tell the story of the film’s production, which has to be a story worth telling (we didn’t read the book). Here are five reasons we are pumped about the movie, set for release in December:

5. The Casting

While its impossible to beat the humor of the actual movie “The Room,” when the cast was released for this upcoming movie, we knew we were in for a treat. James Franco, who has proved himself in both drama and comedy, is a 100-percent solid choice to play Mr. Wiseau.

While he has a bit less experience with major films on the directoral front, we are confident he’ll will knock it out of the park. Much of the work he has done as a director is impressive, including some of his oldershort films.

We were initially unsure about Dave Franco playing Greg Sestero, but he seems to fit right in to the red tank top and stupid facial hair in the teaser (sorry Greg).

No one has ever watched “The Room” without thinking “how did this get made?” We’re so excited to see the story of the worst story ever told up on the big screen.

3. Appearances from Tommy and Greg

It has been confirmed that Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero will both have small parts/cameos as characters in the movie. We’re looking forward to seeing what their parts are like, especially Tommy’s. It’s hard to imagine Tommy playing anyone but Tommy.

2. The Sex Scenes

OK, this sounds weird, but hear us out. “The Room” had some of the most awkward, tone deaf, generally weird sex scenes ever put on the screen. From a scene featuring Mark and Lisa on a spiral staircase (ouch), to a horrendous shot of pure Tommy Wiseau ass, the love making scenes in “The Room” have never failed to make people uncomfortable.

We imagine the making of these scenes will be even more hilarious, and perhaps more disturbing, than the scenes themselves.

1. Franco’s Interpretation

After watching the trailer, it became obvious to us that James Franco will interpret Tommy in his own, funny way. While he sounds and looks nearly identical to the man, I was relieved to see that Franco delivered the famous “I did not hit her” monologue with a different rhythm than Tommy did in “The Room.”

To make a long story short, it looks like Franco is going to put his own creative energy into the character, and not just try to mimic him exactly. We’re not saying that he isn’t doing a spot-on impression, he is, he’s just doing it in his own way.

What did you think of “The Disaster Artist” teaser trailer? Let us know in the comments!